611.1—What definitions apply to the Teacher Quality Enhancement Grants Program?
The following definitions apply to this part:
High-need local educational agency (LEA) means an LEA that meets one of the following definitions:
(i)
In which 50 percent or more of the enrolled students are eligible for free and reduced lunch subsidies; or
(ii)
That otherwise is eligible, without receipt of a waiver, to operate as a schoolwide program under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
(i)
More than 34 percent of academic classroom teachers overall (across all academic subjects) do not have a major, minor, or significant course work in their main assignment field; or
(ii)
More than 34 percent of the main assignment faculty in two of the core-subject departments do not have a major, minor, or significant work in their main assigned field.
(3)
An LEA that serves a school whose attrition rate among classroom teachers was 15 percent or more over the last three school years.
High-need school means an elementary, middle, or secondary school operated by a high-need LEA in which the school's students or teaching staff meet the elements in paragraphs (1), (2), or (3) of the definition of a high-need LEA.
Main assignment field means the academic field in which teachers have the largest percentage of their classes.
Significant course work means four or more college-or graduate-level courses in the content area.